LossBusters Blog

When a $100 bill is tendered in a fast food (QSR) environment, the cashier freaks out a bit and calls the manager over to inspect it.He or she gets a bit nervous as they go about looking it over, holding the bill up to the light, not quite sure what they are looking for. With profit margins being so narrow in quick serve restaurants there is not a whole room for error in accepting a phony bill – particularly a $100. If they are further along in training they may swipe the bill with one of those iodine ‘counterfeit’ pens.There is a slight sigh and a quick nod to the cashier to accept the bill.Other fast food establishments may refuse to accept the $100 bill as a policy, which is a whole other subject.

OK, now this is getting scary. According to a newspaper article in The Ledger in Lakeland, Florida, thieves are now using blue tooth technology in their credit card “skimming” crimes.Credit card skimming is the crime of obtaining customer information from the magnetic stripe on the back of the credit card.In retail shops and restaurants, dishonest employees handling customer credit card transactions swipe the card through a portable device that captures customer information.They then usually sell the information to others in organized crime rings that create fraudulent credit cards in the customers’ names and buy expensive items or gift cards that are easily fenced for large profits.

“They treated me like a common criminal”, said the employee after being escorted from the building after being let go from his employer of 12 years.” “It’s hard to recover from watching terminated co-workers escorted to the door”, stated another employee of a company involved in laying off employees in the midst of downsizing.So why does it happen this way?Why do companies resort to such protective actions?It is not so much of a fear of a violent response, but more as, it is protection of proprietary information and the brand.Policies are created to prevent a just terminated employee from walking out with client lists, memos, or other proprietary information; some of which may or could be used against the company.To guard against the theft of information, sabotage, or disgruntled or even violent behavior, their departure is closely supervised.